It’s only mid-January but the pivotal game of the season has arrived for St. John’s.

If the Red Storm don’t beat undefeated Boston College tonight at the Garden, their chances of the making the NCAA Tournament are all but dashed.

This is not a stretch. St. John’s is 7-6 overall (1-1 in the Big East) with 14 regular-season game remaining. The Red Storm must win at least 11 of 14 to get on the bubble, or must make a run to the Big East Conference Tournament championship game.

“There are 200 other schools in America – if their goal is to just make the tournament, that’s on them,” said St. John’s coach Mike Jarvis. “Our goal is to be a major player in the tournament. The only way to do that is win a lot of games, one at a time, and beat people as the season progresses and end up as strong as hell.”

The Red Storm will have a chance to finish strong. The last five games of the season are against Duke, ranked third by The Post, followed by games against No. 14 Georgetown, at Villanova, at Boston College, and against 20th-ranked Syracuse.

Oh, yes, there’s also a rematch in three weeks with seventh-ranked Connecticut, which beat St. John’s 82-80 in overtime on Saturday. Despite the loss, that was the best played game of the season by St. John’s.

For the first time they played with a rhythm and flow on offense that have been trademarks of Jarvis’ first two St. John’s teams, which advanced to the Elite Eight and second round of the last two NCAA Tournaments. But this is a team in the making, one that starts three freshmen and has eight first-year players.

The season is one the line tonight against the surprising Eagles, ranked 24th by the Associated Press. St. John’s has a chance to post its first quality win since the season-opening 62-61 triumph over Kentucky.

The Johnnies have a chance to build on the momentum of the quality performance against Connecticut, and put together a run.

“If we lose, it will be a big step back for us,” said junior Anthony Glover. “We will really hurt ourselves. Since the Christmas break, we feel the elevator is going up. We can’t allow it to go down.”

Since Christmas, St. John’s has blown out the University of San Francisco and Virginia Tech before the overtime loss in Storrs. The elevator still is on the ground floor, by NCAA Tournament standards.

St. John’s has an RPI of 82, 10th among Big East teams. Boston College (11-0, 2-0) has an RPI of 16. Only once (1990-91) has the Big East sent as many as seven teams to the NCAA Tournament.

The Red Storm already have absorbed some losses the NCAA Tournament selection committee will not look kindly upon when it convenes in March to choose the at-large field. There was the 85-75 loss to George Washington, the 68-67 loss to Fordham, and the 86-80 loss to Hofstra.